ZeniMax announced over the weekend that it was lifting the NDA for The Elder Scrolls Online. Everyone is now free to record, screenshot, and upload their adventures in Tamriel without fear of reprisal. Players of the game's various beta events are now able to share their experiences with the greater community, whether they be positive or negative.

The bad news is there's not a beta event currently ongoing, but the developer promises to hold a new one soon. The good news is ESO is highly polished. NPCs are voiced and the game has received the same level of attention to detail that fans that have played Skyrim experienced. Of course, not everyone may agree with the good news.

The Elder Scrolls Online launches April 4 on PC, with early access beginning on March 31 for anyone that pre-ordered either the standard or Imperial Edition. A console version of the game for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will follow in June later this year. Expect beta information on that some time after the PC version launches.

There are a couple of issues surrounding this game that I don't quite understand.

First and foremost--and I mean this in the most genuinely non-confrontational manner--what's the big deal about the cost? This is the exact same payment structure as most major MMOs nowadays (and has been for a while). Pay for the game, then pay a monthly fee. WoW (still) does it, Final Fantasy XIV does it, and neither of them have gotten nearly the volume of complaints ESO has. I'm just not sure I see what's different about this particular title.

The second is likely more of a lack of experience on my part, but I'm unsure why the Internet Hate Machine™ has been rolling so heavily over this game. Most of the beta weekends have come when I've been too busy with work to log many hours into the testing process, but it seems to be exactly what I'd expect an Elder Scrolls MMO to be. At the very least, I have seen improvements by leaps and bounds from the first beta test I was in to the most recent I played.

I think I'm looking forward to this game; I really do--but I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something.

There are a couple of issues surrounding this game that I don't quite understand.

First and foremost--and I mean this in the most genuinely non-confrontational manner--what's the big deal about the cost? This is the exact same payment structure as most major MMOs nowadays (and has been for a while). Pay for the game, then pay a monthly fee. WoW (still) does it, Final Fantasy XIV does it, and neither of them have gotten nearly the volume of complaints ESO has. I'm just not sure I see what's different about this particular title.

WoW is only $20 for the base game and another $20-30 for Mists of Pandaria. FF14 is only $30 for the base game (and also has a cheaper sub at $13 a month). ESO is $60 for the base game ($80 for the digital imperial edition) on top of the $15 monthly sub. That's where most of the complaints are coming from. ESO costs the same as your typical PC or console game up front on top of the monthly subscription. The $60 price tag worked for GW2 because there was no subscription so they had to sell the product at a higher price to recoup development costs. WoW and FF14 focused on making that money back in subscriptions, but ESO appears like it expects you to not pay for a subscription once your 30 day trial expires. I personally will likely pass on ESO because of the ridiculous pricing unless it goes on sale.

Plus, Blizzard likes to put WoW on sale for as low as $5 at varying times so that also helps people not complain about the price.

quote Exevier

The second is likely more of a lack of experience on my part, but I'm unsure why the Internet Hate Machine™ has been rolling so heavily over this game. Most of the beta weekends have come when I've been too busy with work to log many hours into the testing process, but it seems to be exactly what I'd expect an Elder Scrolls MMO to be.

WoW is only $20 for the base game and another $20-30 for Mists of Pandaria. FF14 is only $30 for the base game (and also has a cheaper sub at $13 a month). ESO is $60 for the base game ($80 for the digital imperial edition) on top of the $15 monthly sub. That's where most of the complaints are coming from. ESO costs the same as your typical PC or console game up front on top of the monthly subscription. The $60 price tag worked for GW2 because there was no subscription so they had to sell the product at a higher price to recoup development costs. WoW and FF14 focused on making that money back in subscriptions, but ESO appears like it expects you to not pay for a subscription once your 30 day trial expires. I personally will likely pass on ESO because of the ridiculous pricing unless it goes on sale.

Didn't both WoW and FFXIV launch at what was considered full price for a PC game? Granted, FFXIV re-launched at the reduced price point, but that was a couple years after the initial launch. That also puts WoW's current entry point at about $40 before subscription for a game that has quite a few years of age on it.

Personally, I guess this is about what I expect from a new MMO launch--pay full price for the game off the shelf, then either pay a subscription or deal with micro transactions. Either way, I think there's been a 20% off coupon going around out there (from Green Man Gaming, maybe?), and I fully expect the retail cost to go down in the coming months. Whatever the reason, the price point just wasn't much of a surprise for me.

quote Avalith

Many people were expecting it to not feel like a multiplayer Skyrim.

This might be what was catching me off guard--I was under the impression a multiplayer Skyrim is what most were hoping for. I have no problems with that, anyway. I don't see myself jumping in on day one or anything (and I usually love doing that with MMO launches), but I'll likely pick it up eventually.

Anyways I've gotten in a few beta weekends since this past august and every time I've tried I run into the same problem, I start getting really bored around the second zone in. I've pushed myself to the 3rd zone a couple times (thats around level 20) but I just can't find the game fun.

Crafting is indecipherable, as it was of this last beta weekend there was still no explanation of it that I saw. The quests are not engaging at all they didn't really tell a meaningful story. They made it sound like things were happening but every where you went was just clean up after a problem had already been resolved. The world was beautiful, but it looked so much like Skyrim that the lack of interactivity left me wanting which I'm aware is not a fair criticism.

The biggest problem with ESO is not its price (thats the second biggest problem), it's the gameplay. Just take the formula from morrowind, expand that into all the other regions, dump a bunch of players in and call it a day.

At least thats what everyone was hoping for since it seemed like such an obvious choice. Didn't even have to fix the terrible combat if it had just done that.

If it plays too much like a typical MMO than other than the world (which from my understanding, and I could be wrong, seems to have inconsistencies in terms of lore) why would anyone play it?

There are a couple of issues surrounding this game that I don't quite understand.

First and foremost--and I mean this in the most genuinely non-confrontational manner--what's the big deal about the cost? This is the exact same payment structure as most major MMOs nowadays (and has been for a while). Pay for the game, then pay a monthly fee. WoW (still) does it, Final Fantasy XIV does it, and neither of them have gotten nearly the volume of complaints ESO has. I'm just not sure I see what's different about this particular title.

The second is likely more of a lack of experience on my part, but I'm unsure why the Internet Hate Machine™ has been rolling so heavily over this game. Most of the beta weekends have come when I've been too busy with work to log many hours into the testing process, but it seems to be exactly what I'd expect an Elder Scrolls MMO to be. At the very least, I have seen improvements by leaps and bounds from the first beta test I was in to the most recent I played.

I think I'm looking forward to this game; I really do--but I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something.

Ignore the person that compared buying WoW and paying monthly to ESO. Its only 10 years old, its bound to be the same price it was the day it came out, lets take a look at new xbox one games and ps4 games too they are about £50 to buy, yet how many do you finish within a week and never play again? Ontop of nearly every mmo having or requiring some form of ~£10 a month payment. People are just complaining because they have nothing better to do. You pay for a game that gets updated frequently to the standard of a £50 game, people need to deal with it or go play some sub standard mmo with shitty yearly updates that include new pieces of lego to play with. No doubt someone will throw in GW2 as a comparison at some point, GW2 doesnt have half the depth or difficulty of the ESO Beta alone. Also to combat the 'free to play model is the only working model today?!' I think the people getting paid hundreds a day to study the market know more than the retard sat behind a pc crying because he has no friends on p2p games. People are expecting this game to be some sort of real life sim and that you can do anything on it while doing everything else not previously mentioned, like any game, if you expect too much you get disappointed.

To sum a long reply short, the lack of common sense on the internet is why ESO is getting hate.

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quote wuffietookies

Dugtrio (because three moles to a hole equals more holes...what?) get a pass? That's ridiculous.

Your lack of knowledge of TES games is amusing. Who, and I am genuinely asking, in the hell expected The Elder Sims? Like really, who?

I don't see the reason for you to come in here all butthurt because people aren't on sucking Bethesda off. I myself have no problem with it(I've only really played one MMO before so the price doesnNt seem that big of a deal to me) but dismissing others as retarded for not liking the $60 up front plus the $15/month is just as retarded if not moreso.

Ignore the person that compared buying WoW and paying monthly to ESO. Its only 10 years old, its bound to be the same price it was the day it came out

No, let's not ignore it. You can get into a 10 year old MMO and be fully updated with the latest content for less than you can get into ESO. The monthly subscription is the same, but you're paying $10 for WoW and four expansions than you do for ESO's base.

quote Human_Tank10

lets take a look at new xbox one games and ps4 games too they are about £50 to buy, yet how many do you finish within a week and never play again? Ontop of nearly every mmo having or requiring some form of ~£10 a month payment

Final Fantasy XIV is only $30, has a cheaper subscription (if you're content with only one character... there's not really a need for alts other than extra bag space), and is a much better comparison to ESO than your typical $60 Call of Duty.

quote Human_Tank10

No doubt someone will throw in GW2 as a comparison at some point, GW2 doesnt have half the depth or difficulty of the ESO Beta alone.

GW2 was only mentioned because it's roughly the same price as ESO up front. The only reason people don't complain about GW2's price for being an MMO is that there's no monthly subscription fee. Combine the higher price tag with a subscription and you've got yourself a problem. Many ESO players at first will be WoW and FF14 players as well. They're not going to want to pay for two or three subscriptions if they're having to pay a regular retail price for that second or third MMO.

Don't get me wrong. I've played the ESO beta. I enjoyed it. I'm just not willing to pay for three MMO subscriptions and pay $60 for that third MMO.